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■ Hoya opens Hsinchu plant
The local unit of Japan-based Hoya Corp, the world's largest supplier of optical glass to the semiconductor industry, held a ceremony yesterday at its new plant in the Hsinchu Science Park (新竹科學園區) to mark the beginning of mass production, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a statement. The plant will make photomasks -- glass plates containing patterns of a microchip's circuitry. This component is used to produce liquid crystal displays (LCDs). Hoya will initially invest NT$200 million (US$6.5 million) in making photomasks to meet increasing demand from local LCD manufacturers, according to the ministry. As local LCD makers are planning to build fifth- and sixth-generation flat-panel factories, Hoya will increase the investment to NT$1.5 billion in the next few years, the ministry said. Hoya will also produce photomasks used in large-sized thin-film transistor LCDs in the near future, the ministry said. Construction of the Hoya plant, located in the fourth compound of the Hsinchu Science Park, started in April last year.

■ Aboriginal quota cut
The ratio of Aboriginal people working in the nation's free trade zones will be cut to 1 percent from the 5 percent currently required in regulations, Council for Economic Planning and Development Chairman Hu Sheng-cheng (胡勝正) told lawmakers on Thursday. According to regulations governing the establishment of the free trade zones, Aborigines should account for 5 percent of the total workforce in the zone. Enterprises have complained about this figure, saying that the ratio is too high considering the fact that the number of Aboriginal people in the proportion of the total population -- about 2 percent -- is low. According to regulations protecting the rights of Aborigines, 1 percent of the workforce in government agencies, public schools and public enterprises in cities and counties other than the outlying islands of Penghu, Kinmen and Lienchiang County which employ more than 100 people must be Aboriginal. In private schools, groups or private companies whose number of personnel surpasses 200, the minimum number of Aboriginal employees must be 0.5 percent of the total workforce. Judging from these ratios, the 5-percent requirement for free trade zones seemed to be too stringent, Hu said.

■ Advanced Micro on the hunt
Advanced Micro Devices Inc, the world's second-largest maker of computer processor chips, is seeking to add to its suppliers that currently include Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Ltd (特許半導體), Advanced Micro Chief Executive Hector Ruiz said on Thursday in Taipei. Advanced Micro wants more suppliers as it aims to increase its share of the processor market to 25 percent from about 16 percent within four years, Ruiz said. The company expects that the excess global supply of chip-production capacity will increase next year, he added.

■ PCA touts Indian stocks
PCA Securities Investment Trust Co (保誠投信), asset management arm of the UK-based Prudential Plc, plans to start Taiwan's first fund for buying stocks in India, where overseas fund investments rose to a record high last year. PCA Securities, which manages US$3.2 billion in assets in Taiwan, plans to start raising the fund in May, said Tiffany Chang, who will manage the money. The company applied to raise as much as NT$5 billion, a filing made to the Securities and Futures Bureau said. "India has an attractive, fast-growing economy," Chang said in an interview on Wednesday. "The massive market is under-invested by Taiwan investors."

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